Walk to Defeat ALS, Lubbock, TX

Lots of Vinson and Holly family members gathered at Buddy Holly Park in Lubbock on Saturday morning to participate in the ALS Walk to Defeat ALS. The walk raised over $25,000 to go toward finding a cure for this disease that took Ed's dad in 2007. Our team name was "Granddad's Gang," and we all wore team t-shirts. We picked red since it is a fairly gender neutral color; unfortunately, several of the other teams also chose red, so you'll notice LOTS of red shirts in some of the pictures. Here are some of the highlights of our Saturday together honoring LaVern Vinson: Here are Meaghan and Jackson with their Granddad's Gang t-shirts on ready to head for the park. Just as I snapped the picture, Jackson did what his Daddy taught him!
The walk was at Buddy Holly Park which is part of the Canyon Lakes area. It was very pretty, but got rather warm before it was all over. Believe it or not, there were actually some hills (or maybe just inclines) we had to go up, so I guess Lubbock isn't totally flat after all!

Here are just a few of the Vinson/Holly family members gathering for the walk. The lady is front is Vi, Ed's mom. I think all the red shirts shown here are actually part of our team.

Jim and Ruby Barron--Ruby is LaVern's sister who also lives in Midland.

Emily and Jackson are holding hands getting ready for the walk. Emily started out in her stroller and was content to stay in it. Jackson started out walking but ended up in his stroller too.Here are just some of the walkers that stretched out over the walking path around the park. Most of the walkers did just that--walked--no hot-dog joggers on this adventure, thank goodness.After the walk everyone enjoyed just hanging out and having a chance to visit with each other. Here are Granddad's 4 great-grandchildren (Emily, Jackson, Kooper, and Ryleigh). The little one on the far right is Ed's cousin Ron Holly's granddaughter, Audrey.Jackson is being the helpful big cousin and showing Emily how to drink out of Nana Jo's water bottle. He told me that Emily got all wet, but it didn't seem to bother her.It can't be a Vinson family get-together without a meal, so we all headed to Rosa's after the walk.